Light and Darkness
by Cptn. Suz
Summary: Drabbles about Tenzou Yamato for the 50shinobi theme challenge on LiveJournal. Now up: Tenzou reflects on a massacre.
1. 47 soap suds

50shinobi theme # 47 suds (bubble)

Title: The Real Reason Kakashi Wears a Mask

"Senpai?"

All Tenzou can see is the sea of bubbles filling the general vicinity. With a sigh, he dives down again, scrubby brush in hand. Somewhere in the suds are eight dogs… and Kakashi.

It shouldn't be that hard to find to a mutt in this mess, but he is blindly feeling about with one arm for a good minute before he connects with a furry body. From the size, Tenzou thinks it might be the dog with a mohawk, but he isn't sure. In any case, he starts scrubbing. Merrily, the canine flops over, writhing in delight as the brush goes over his belly and behind his ears. Then the dog disappears again into the froth.

A large mass, probably the bulldog, collides with his back. As he is sent rolling through the suds, Tenzou wonders why he ever let Kakashi talk him into helping wash the ninken. He rights himself and emerges from the white foam to breath.

Kakashi is still nowhere to be seen. Tenzou once more begins the process of seeking out one of the pooches to scour. His hand connects with a bunch of hair, and he automatically latches on to try and wrangle the dog in his direction. Instead, his hand is forced upward and he finds himself nose to nose with the Copy-Nin.

Immediately he disentangles his hand from the silver locks and apologizes. Then Tenzou lets his expression sour. "How did…" he starts, but ends up sputtering as a wave of suds flings itself into his face. "Euk…guk…bleck… we're going to be tasting soap for weeks."

In response, Kakashi points to his mask, and smiles. Rather, his sole visible eye tightens into its happy-crease, and from experience Tenzou knows that the man is amused at his discomfort. As the masked face disappears into the bubbles, the wood-user promises himself to never complain about Pakkun's wet-dog smell during a mission, especially if this was the result.


	2. 17 hopscotch

50shinobi theme #17 hopscotch

**Title: An Undignified Return  
**

He bypasses the main gate completely, using the alternate entrance technique privileged only to the ANBU. There is no time to answer challenges, no time to stop for help. They must get to the hospital and they must get there NOW.

Tenzou hefts Kakashi's limp body from where it has slipped down his back. In the process, he trips over the tiles of a roof and almost plunges the both of them into a back alley. An extra burst of chakra at the last moment sees them safely over the gap.

The wood-user is beyond exhausted now. That limit was past hours ago when the fire in his limbs turned into numbness and each movement had to be mentally conducted and enforced. It was only conscious effort that kept his arms locked around the Copy-Nin, keeping him in place.

His chakra is tapped out as well now. So when the sweat mixed with the dust ran under his mask and into his eyes, Tenzou pitches forward off the balcony railing. Through some miracle of aerodynamics he lands mostly on his feet and begins to stagger the last hundred yards towards the hospital.

Every faculty at his possession is focused on jerking his legs ahead one at a time, and on holding up Kakashi. Even this is not enough to prevent him from stumbling over his own ruined footwear and jarring both kneecaps against the dirty road. Some child has traced out hopscotch boxes in the dust, and Tenzou wipes out half of them as he brutally circles around a lower leg and puts his feet under him again.

There are too many steps. How can anyone be expected to climb so many steps? Will-power is the only thing keeping this ANBU nin going. When his ankles fail, hands and knees must suffice. Like a caterpillar, he crawls upward, Kakashi affixed to his back by gravity alone.

All sense of time departed long ago, but at some point Tenzou reaches the top. Someone must have noticed the situation, for as he flops onto his stomach, he can feel hands removing and lifting his senpai away. He can't feel Kakashi's chakra presence anymore. Hell, he can't even feel his own chakra presence.

His beleaguered brain coalesces one last thought: he hopes that he will be forgiven for the undignified nature of his return from his first ANBU mission. Then the wood-user dips into welcoming unconsciousness.


	3. 8 Hokage

50shinobi theme #8 Hokage

**Title: Wood Technique Reborn**

"Tell us a story!"

"Yea! A story!"

"Please! Tell us a story!"

High-pitched children's voices beseeched the Hokage. Hiruzen smiled back at them. All the Academy students were so young. This batch in particular, the instructors informed him, was almost ready to graduate. Not long after that they would find themselves on the battlefield and there would be no more time for stories.

"Alright! Alright!" he spoke up. "Come sit down while I decide what to tell."

Little bodies circled around him, dropping easily to the grass. The Sandaime knelt down as well. With the promise of a story-time several teachers took the opportunity to flee for a well-deserved break. The rest formed a loose cordon around the students, flagging in a few passing chuunin for what was sure to be an interesting tale.

"I think," Hiruzen started, pausing briefly to adjust the tilt of his wide hat of office and block the sun, "I will tell you about the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju."

There were a great many tales one could tell about the founder of the Leaf Village: how he had brought the great clans of Uchiha, Hyuuga, and others together in alliance with his own, how he and his brother had set down the traditions and ideals of Konoha, igniting the 'will of fire' in its shinobi, how he fought and defeated the traitorous Madara Uchiha at the Valley of the End. But any story involving the First Hokage absolutely had to include his wood-element techniques. The mere idea of combining earth and water, of creating forests and literally changing the landscape of the Fire Country, was breathtaking. Everyone loved to think about it, and the students were no exception.

"Show us one!"

"What hand seals did he use?"

"Can we try?"

More youthful cries rose to his ears. It could not hurt to show them one of the simpler techniques. In all the years since the Shodaime's death, not another soul had ever shown the ability to use wood-element, not even among the Senju. And that was not for lack of trying.

So Hiruzen demonstrated the three seal combination for Mokuton Mokujou Heki. In his mind's eye he could still see the First drawing up the wooden wall around himself without a moment's effort. It was nigh impenetrable, and made for one heck of a time when Tobirama-sensei had given them the assignment of ambushing his brother.

Around him the air was filled with quiet grunts and hisses as the children tried out the technique, dumping shameful amounts of chakra into it and coming up spare. Suddenly, louder gasps and shouts took their place.

Hiruzen blinked away his recollection… and then tried to blink it away again. Before his eyes stood one of those very domed wooden walls.

It had to be a trick. At least, that was the Sandaime's first thought. That quickly changed as he waded through the tumult of pint-sized bodies towards the incongruous shell. True, some enterprising ninja could have built such a structure, and then summoned it by scroll. The prankster might even be so smart as to guess that he'd demonstrate Mokujou Heki, since it was one of the most straightforward wood techniques. But to have it prepared right for this moment? No, something else was going on here.

Now standing beside the dome, Hiruzen could hear the frantic pounding of someone inside. "Help! Let me out! Get me out of here! Help!" The words emerged somewhat muffled and indistinct. Whoever the student inside was, he was near panic.

Giving a series of sharp raps to the curved wall enlightened the Hokage to the relatively thin nature of the wood. This was not like the Shodaime's, and whatever chakra had drawn it up made it pitifully weak in comparison to the original. Shouting loudly at the trapped child to stay down, he took a good swing and broke right through. Chips and splinters went flying, and larger pieces collapsed inward. Huddled in the middle, his wide eyes flooded with fear, was one little boy.

Gently brushing the shards from the student's brown hair, Hiruzen tried to remember the boy's name. He was neither one of the troublemakers, nor one of the prodigies, up till now anyway. It started with a T… Ten? Ten… Tenzou. That was it. One of the quiet ones that sat in the back and watched. He took the lad's hand and pulled him out of the broken dome.

Eye-catching blonde hair topped the young chuunin who now appeared at his side. "Lord Hokage!" he spoke breathlessly, "That was a real Wood Technique!"

"So it would appear." The Sandaime glanced down momentarily at the rescued child. "Minato, if you would help the instructors, and see to getting all this wood cleaned up. Tenzou and I," he gripped the boy by the shoulder, directing him where to start walking, "Are going to talk."


	4. 40 heart strings

50shinobi theme #40 heart strings

**Title: Arts & Crafts**

"What do you think, sir?"

Tenzou lowered his gaze downward at the pint-sized girl asking his opinion. This particular student had created an outfit to illustrate the body's chakra network. The eight gates were represented by cut-out shapes, such as the red paper heart. Strings, a myriad of them, ran through these, pinned to her clothing for chakra channels.

"Well?"

The wood-user took a step back, bringing a hand to his chin as he assessed her presentation. Meanwhile the pre-genin danced back and forth, eager for his response. Finally he circled behind her and gave her a poke between the shoulder blades.

"What about the back?"

The girl gasped. "I totally forgot!" spurted from her mouth, and then she was running off to find more thread.

A resigned sigh worked its way up his throat. There had to be better ways of fulfilling community involvement hours than helping Iruka's remedial students.


	5. 48 paper fan

50shinobi theme #48 paper fan

**Title: Uchiwa**

Fingertips pressed against the frame, he could feel the timbers creak and shift. The buildings wouldn't stay forever. Without someone to tend them, rebuild them, they'd eventually give in.

Tenzou turned the corner, taking in the red and white paint peeling off the wall before him. The clan symbol was fading but still recognizable. Like the remaining members of the clan itself – absent and yet in the consciousness of the village. Would one of them return and repaint it one day?

Patrolling the vacant complex was a duty given to ANBU only. Not that the act of watching for vandalism required anything more than chuunin-level skills. Even those weren't forced into play since the neighborhood was a veritable ghost town. Children did not seek to make mischief here, nor did teens. Adults rarely mentioned it, and when they did it was in hushed tones – as if speaking quietly they could somehow deny what happened here or superstitiously keep the disturbed souls at bay.

Outside, along dusty lanes, between aging houses, all signs of the violent event had long since passed away. Brown discolorations were washed out by rain or sank invisible into the wood. Any trace on the ground wiped away by the wind.

Inside, if one were to look, Tenzou suspected there would still be evidence. Crimson stains covered by a thick drift of dust. A rain derived from human life still remembered by the planks and panels.

When one of their own did something so terrible, so wrong, so horrific to the sensibilities of the bloody-handed special ops, they could not ask others to fulfill this menial task. Every time one of their bemasked members paced these streets, it was to haunt anew such a failing by one of the ANBU and such a failure on their part to protect village lives. No matter how lowly the civilian or how haughty the clan leaders, they belonged to the village, were the village.

Tenzou thought he knew some little bit of what it meant to guard the village and its people. Past failure of another shinobi in that duty – some unwatchful set of eyes – had allowed his own abduction, been an accomplice in his own bizarre circumstances – a genetic inheritance that didn't belong to him. In a way, this clan was as absent as the one to which he'd never belong.

He remembered the Senjuu elders' scorn, how biting it felt. Bad enough that they didn't want him yet kept a wary eye on his progress. Progress he did, known at every advancement as a freak among freakish and deadly shinobi. Joining ANBU had been different. For once the spotlight was not burning down on him. Instead it was on the newest captain – that ridiculously young and talented youth. The pride of his father and his clan.

In ill-hidden curiosity, Tenzou had tailed the young man home, to the gates of this now empty complex. Family had greeted the black-haired teen, a father with a nod of approval, a mother with a tender embrace, a younger brother playfully demanding his attention. Bittersweet scenes to Tenzou's eyes, as he watched they played out, half absorbed into the boughs of a nearby tree.

That tree was still there now. He could see it in the corner of his vision. Checking, the thick crossbeam in its fixing, he then jumped over to stand facing the closed gate. The new captain had been standing in just about the same place that day when he turned very deliberately and stared right at Tenzou, tomoe swirling in those red red Sharingan eyes.

* * *

A/N: This is, of course, referring to a hypothetical interaction between Tenzou and Itachi Uchiha, who later murdered his entire clan save for his brother Sasuke. Their clan name Uchiha comes from uchiwa, the type of paper fan depicted in their clan crest. I knew I wanted to use the Uchiha with this prompt from the start, otherwise this story took a completely different turn than I expected, save for the final scene. I've upped the rating to T because these dark chapters seem to keep getting darker.


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